The present invention relates to a money processing apparatus and method, in particular, it is used in a distribution industry, such as supermarkets and convenience stores, the money processing apparatus being connected to a POS (point of sales) register to total the amount of input bills.
In the money processing apparatuses used for store registers, cash delivery or exchange operations with customers are currently being streamlined, and the cash registers connected to the POS terminals are now getting popular now. A money processing apparatus has recently been developed to automatically process input or output coins or bills in response to information input through the POS terminal. Money processing apparatuses are generally classified into a coin processing apparatus and a bill processing apparatus. A money processing apparatus in which coin and bill-processing apparatuses are integrated and miniaturized to a size of a cash drawer to permit installation under the POS terminal has been proposed.
FIG. 9 is a perspective view illustrating the money processing apparatus. The installation area of the money processing apparatus 1 is reduced to be as compact as that of a POS register 2, so that the apparatus 1 may be placed under the register 2. The money processing apparatus 1 is integrally united by placing a bill-processing section 6 and a coin processing section 9 in parallel. The bill-processing section 6 includes a bill input port 3, a bill output port 4, and a bill collecting housing 5 on its front surface. The coin processing section 9 includes a coin input port 7 and a coin output port 8 on its front surface.
Bills are input from the bill input port 3. Bills for change are output from the bill output port 4 on a command from the POS register 2. The bill collecting housing 5 separately houses ten-thousand-yen bills which are not used as a change. When various types of coins are simultaneously input from the coin input port 7, they are sequentially transported to the interior of the coin processing section 9, which are separated by coin-types during the transfer and are stored in different locations. For example, when the POS register 2 sends instructions to provide change, predetermined types and numbers of coins are output from the coin output port 8.
FIG. 10 is a side view showing an example of an internal structure of the bill-processing section. The bill-processing section 6 has input-bill rollers 11, an input-bill identifying section 12, a blade roller 13, and a bill housing 14 on the downstream side of the bill input port 3. A presser plate 15 that presses accumulated bills 10 downwards is supported on an oscillating shaft 20 of the bill housing 14 to permit oscillation. A supply roller 25 that feeds accumulated bills 10 in the horizontal direction from the bottom of the bills is placed at the bottom of the bill housing 14. A separation and delivery section 16 that sequentially separates and delivers one bill, a delivered-bill transport section 17, and an output-bill identifying section 18 are located on the downstream side of the supply roller 25.
An output-bill transport section 19 leading to the bill output port 4 is located on the downstream side of the output-bill identifying section 18. In addition, an output-bill gate 21 and a collecting gate 22 for switching a transport path are located on the downstream side of the section 18, and a collected-bill transport section 23. leading to the bill collecting housing 5 is provided behind the collecting gate 22. A circulating transport section 24 is provided to guide the bills delivered from the bill housing 14 back to the bill housing 14.
The function of the bill-processing section 6 will be described in detail along a bill transport route. First, bills input from the bill input port 3 are pulled by the opposed input-bill rollers 11. The input-bill identifying section 12 is located on the downstream side of the input-bill rollers 11 to identify the input bills. The bills are normally input one at a time, but when, for example, change is supplied to the apparatus, multiple bills can be simultaneously input to reduce the bill input time.
The input bills are transported and sequentially aligned and accumulated in the bill housing 14 from its top while pushing up the presser plate 15. The presser plate 15 presses the bills 10 accumulated in the bill housing 14 at a position generally corresponding to the center and opposed to the supply roller 25, while the blade roller 13 presses the other end of the bills. This configuration enables stable accumulation by preventing succeeding bills from colliding against the bills 10 already housed.
One end of the presser plate 15 is fixed to the oscillating shaft 20 to support the plate 15 to permit oscillation. The plate 15 presses the bills 10 with its own weight only. For output, the supply roller 25 rotates to feed the bills 10 accumulated in the bill housing 14 to the right of the figure and sequentially from the bottom, and the separation and delivery section 16 sequentially separates and delivers one bill from the others. The delivered-bill transport section 17 transports the delivered bills. The output-bill identifying section 18 provided in the middle of the transport path determines the bill type.
Based on the results of the determination, bills to be output pass through the output-bill transport section 19 and are aligned and accumulated in the bill output port 4. For the bills need not be output as a change, such as ten-thousand-yen bills, the output-bill gate 21 and collecting gate 22 operate to pass these bills through the collected-bill transport section 23 in order to align and accumulate them in the bill collecting housing 5. For unidentifiable bills, only the output-bill gate 21 operates to pass these bills through the circulating transport section 24 to re-house them in the bill housing 14.
According to the bill-processing apparatus of the above structure, when the bills are sequentially input, the input-bill identifying section can identify the bill types, so that bills can be counted based on the results of identification to determine the number of bills in the bill housing. If the supply of change in the apparatus runs out and requires re-supply, multiple bills can be input simultaneously in order to reduce the input time. In this case, the input-bill identifying section can not identify the types and numbers of the input bills, so that the number of the bills in the bill housing is unknown.
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and the object of the present invention is to provide a bill-processing apparatus that can accurately and easily count the number of bills in the apparatus, even when multiple bills are simultaneously input.
Another object of the invention is to provide a method of counting the number of bills in the bill-processing apparatus easily and accurately.